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Tough times for pair of city clubs

By Rick Sobey, rsobey@lowellsun.com and Robert Mills rmills@lowellsun.com

Updated:
07/13/2018 10:47:52 AM EDT

LOWELL -- It's been a tough month for a pair of downtown drinking establishments whose owner has faced multiple allegations before the Lowell License Commission and the Alcohol Beverages Control Commission.

And even more allegations surfaced Thursday night, just after the License Commission denied Bar 74 a change in its manager of record because two commissioners said the application wasn't detailed enough.

Meanwhile, an attorney for the establishments' owner says the city is unfairly targeting the bar while taking far less drastic steps against other establishments found to have committed violations.

Bar 74 and its upstairs neighbor, the Revolution nightclub, located at 74-76 Merrimack St., are both owned by Lauren DiSalvo, who bought the previously troubled bars in 2017 with plans to clean them up.

Earlier this month, the ABCC suspended Revolution's liquor license for 22 days, with another 52 days of suspension held in abeyance. The ABCC's suspension was due to the discovery of 22 minors with alcoholic drinks in the club on Feb. 2.

DiSalvo subsequently fired several people who she said were responsible for the Feb. 22 incident, and hired a private security company to beef up ID checks and security in general. She said that company is hiring retired and off-duty police to work security.

On Tuesday, the Lowell City Council denied Bar 74 a license for sidewalk seating, citing previous violations at the bar and the club upstairs.

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Police recommended against issuing the license, and city councilors unanimously agreed.

"The city and City Council should not be rewarding chronic bad behavior," City Councilor James Milinazzo said.

City Councilor Dave Conway even questioned how Bar 74 and Revolution remain open.

"You look at the history of these establishments and yet we still allow them to be in our city," Conway said.

DiSalvo's attorney, Travis Jacobs, questioned why the City Council denied the sidewalk seating permit when none of the previous violations involved outdoor seating, and when other bars with serious license violations have not been denied seating licenses.

"I believe it's inequitable that so many other bars with serious violations don't have their outdoor seating revoked," Jacobs said.

Jacobs also said it was Revolution that was previously found to have committed the most serious violations.

"There are no serious violations at Bar 74, but they always lump them together," Jacobs said.

The actions against the bar and club came in the wake of a 10-day suspension Bar 74 was issued in May for failing to display its liquor license one day after it was obtained, and for failing to notify the License Commission when its former manager left under a series of unproven allegations traded between him and ownership.

Then on Thursday night, the License Commission rejected Bar 74's application to make Scottie Foreman, of Lowell, the bar's new manager of record, just two months after they had approved another man, Paul Palladino, of Lynnfield, to be the manager of record.

Foreman's application was denied on a 2-2 vote. Martha Howe and Cliff Krieger voted in favor, but Joseph Donahue and Terry McCarthy voted against. The vote was a tie because Commission Chairman John Descoteaux was not present. Descoteaux has previously recused himself from voting on issues regarding the bars, though he refused to say why.

Commissioners voted to let Foreman apply for the position again, but only if his next application contains more information regarding his background and experience.

Howe asked what happened with Palladino. Owner Lauren DiSalvo said she fired Palladino after viewing text messages and other evidence that she said showed he sexually harassed one of her female bartenders.

But reached at his home after the meeting, Palladino denied and responded angrily to the sexual-harassment allegations, and called DiSalvo "a pathological liar."

Palladino said he quit working with DiSalvo because he was disgusted by the way things are done at the bar, and made a number of allegations about what he described as illegal business practices, including drug use in the bar and paying employees under the table.

"I didn't like the way they were running things," Palladino said. "They just didn't listen and I wasn't putting my name on that license."

Interim Police Superintendent Jack Webb said Palladino brought a series of allegations to his attention recently, but that Palladino then declined to cooperate with an investigation, which left police unable to immediately pursue it.

Jacobs, DiSalvo's attorney, scoffed at Palladino's allegations and questioned why he never brought them up in the weeks he spent at the bar before he was approved as the manager of record.

"If he had all these concerns before the application was approved, I don't know why he went forward with it," Jacobs said.

In an odd side note, Palladino said Foreman, a security manager at the bar who applied to replace him as manager of record, is "a good guy."

"He's the only one I would trust there," Palladino said.

Jacobs has also questioned why DiSalvo's establishments have been subjected to so many violations while other downtown bars have rarely faced discipline, despite what he said are numerous police reports documenting incidents elsewhere.

"It seems to me the word is out in Lowell to attack this 100-percent woman-owned business and shut it down," Jacobs said at Tuesday's City Council meeting before councilors cut him off, saying he was out of bounds with his comments.

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